New water compact will safeguard rights

I serve on the Water Policy interim committee, and we had testimony about the Salish-Kootenai water compact for the last two years. We re-examined it legally and established that, yes, this was legal and there was precedence.

This is the ninth compact that Montana will sign, and the final one, between tribes and the federal government. Also, we examined it. We had the Bureau of Mines and Geology in Butte examine the procedures used for the science, and how much water is there, and how is it being used, and they said they were credible. So we've got that.

And there is a business analysis coming out about what will happen if the compact is signed or not signed. Basically what this is, is history in the making. It's actually the last Indian treaty that's going to be signed in Montana.

It's going to settle the dust and it's going to settle the water, and all state-based water users that have their water rights, their rights are protected under this compact.

Nobody's going to lose their water or control of their water. In fact, if this compact goes forward, the tribe within the confines of the reservation will allow exempt wells to be drilled — they're limiting it to 2.4 acre-feet — but, ironically, the only place in Montana right now, going forward, that you'll be able to drill an exempt well will be on the confines of the Flathead Indian Reservation, if the water compact passes.

There has been a lot of misinformation put out about the compact. I think it's a reasonable compact.

We sent back suggestions from water policy, some of those were incorporated into it. I think it needs to come to the Legislature and get passed. If it doesn't, the procedures will be that the tribe then has to file all their water claims in the water court, and that's just being responsible and what every other water right owner in Montana does. And it could be up to 10,000 claims.

They all have to be examined by the DNRC individually — that's time and money, and then they have to go to the water court, and that's time and money, and there's litigation.

What this would in effect do, it would delay Montana getting its water fully adjudicated for decades — for most people's lifetimes. What that does is give an advantage to downstream states and the federal government to make more and increasing claims on our water.

It's imperative that this gets passed. If it doesn't — I'm a cattle rancher. My water rights are affected. Water rights on the east side of the divide, halfway across the state, are impacted by this because of the treaty of 1855 and what the Indians were granted and allowed.

It's going to put half the state back into water court on their claims. Water lawyers will be very, very happy, but it would not be a good thing for the state or its citizens.